So the popular uprising in Egypt has forced the US ally and dictator Mubarak to resign, replacing him with a dictatorship of the same military establishment that Mubarak represented.  As revolutions go, this was an odd one, and the verdict isn't in yet.  (Here's a sober assessment [thanks to Chris Morris for this link].)

Meanwhile, there is an impressive popular protest movement building against the slimy Republican Governor Scott Walker, who created a fake fiscal crisis, in order to launch a full-scale assault on labor unions.  (Here's a nice video montage of scenes from the protests [complete with soundtrack].)  Academics have been substantially involved in the protests, and for good reasons given the venalilty of this particular Republican (I recognize this may seem redundant these days).   Of course, what's going on in Wisconsin is symptomatic of a national trend to finish what Reagan started, namely, the demolition of the public sector and public sector labor unions in particular.

Finally, Chomsky discusses some of the parallels.

(Thanks to Steve Nadler, Gregory Sutliff, and, as always, Maurice Leiter, my main, but usually unacknowledged source, for so many of the links I post.)

UPDATE:  "Is Wisconsin the Tunisia of collective bargaining rights?"  Let us hope so–that the timid bourgeois liberals of the New York Times notice is a hopeful sign that it may be.